A day after being arrested for a drunken beer brawl, a 37-year-old Norwegian man cut his own throat with a steak knife and threatened to electrocute himself due to a fight with his girlfriend.

Police were called to the Ice Steak restaurant near the Dongtan Police Substation May 5 where Per Stale Lund, drunk again, was standing shirtless on a roof above an electrical transformer, threatening to kill himself. In one hand was the knife with which he cut the bloody wounds on his neck, and, in his right, an electrical cable attached to the transformer.

Police and rescuers watch as Lund jumps down off the roof holding the cables after workers had cut off the power.

It took three hours, but police and rescuers talked him down, but not before cutting off the power and seeing the man hang from cables before jumping down. He was taken to Bangkok Hospital Pattaya for treatment.

The incident began when Lund, his girlfriend and her friend came to dine at the restaurant. An argument ensued over Lund’s former lover, who had returned to Pattaya to work. The two women left and the inebriated Norwegian, who had been arrested the night before for a drunken fight at a beer bar, took the knife, cut himself and ran upstairs.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday May 16, 2014 (Vol. XXII No. 20).